What You Can Do With Visual Intelligence on iPhone 16
Visual Intelligence on iPhone 16 and 16 Pro leverages camera features for enhanced tasks like translating text and using Google Search.
Apple’s Visual Intelligence, a new feature exclusive to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, introduces a unique way to interact with your device’s camera. Available starting with iOS 18.2, it offers powerful capabilities for quickly retrieving information, translating text, and interacting with objects in your surroundings.
Activating and Using Visual Intelligence
To activate Visual Intelligence, press and hold the Camera Control button for a few seconds. Simply pressing it will open the camera in Camera Control mode, but to access the Visual Intelligence features, you need the distinct press-and-hold gesture. The feature works only when the Camera app is not already active.
Once activated, Visual Intelligence shows a live view from your camera with dedicated options for capturing photos, asking questions, or performing searches. The “Ask” button queries ChatGPT, while the “Search” button allows you to search images using Google.
Key Features of Visual Intelligence
Get Details About Places When you’re at a location like a restaurant or store, capture an image and tap the location’s name at the top of the display to learn more about it. Visual Intelligence can provide business hours, menus, reservation options, delivery services, and contact details.
Summarize Text Visual Intelligence allows you to capture and summarize long blocks of text. Though it offers brief summaries, it’s useful for quickly digesting large amounts of written information.
Read Text Aloud If you’ve captured text using the Camera Control, you can tap the “Read Aloud” option to have Siri read the text out loud in the chosen voice, making it easier to understand written content hands-free.
Translate Text For text in other languages (currently limited to English), Visual Intelligence offers an instant translation feature, helping you understand foreign-language text on the go.
Visit Website Links Captured images containing links allow you to tap and visit the corresponding website directly from the Visual Intelligence interface.
Send Emails and Make Phone Calls Visual Intelligence can identify email addresses and phone numbers within images. Tapping on these allows you to compose an email or make a phone call without manually entering the contact information.
Create Calendar Events If you capture an image containing a date, Visual Intelligence can suggest adding the event to your calendar, simplifying the process of scheduling.
Detect and Save Contact Info Phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses captured by the camera can be saved directly to your contacts, or you can open the address in the Maps app for navigation.
Scan QR Codes For QR codes, you don’t need to take a picture. Simply point the camera at the code and tap the link that appears, streamlining access to websites and digital content.
Ask ChatGPT When you take a picture of an object, the “Ask” feature allows you to send it to ChatGPT for more context. For example, you can ask “What is this?” after photographing an item to get instant information.
Search Google for Items By tapping the “Search” button, you can use Google Image Search to find information or products related to the item you’ve photographed, making it easy to locate similar items online.
These functionalities make Visual Intelligence an innovative and useful addition to iPhone 16’s camera system, offering users a seamless way to gather information, translate text, and even interact with objects around them. While this feature is only available on the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, it’s a glimpse of how Apple is integrating AI and camera technology to enhance daily smartphone use.